Clinton: West Virginia ‘A Test for Obama’

ABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: A determined Hillary Clinton returned to West Virginia Thursday pledging once again that she’s not ending her campaign and calling the Mountain State a ‘test’ for both her and her Democratic rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

"I think West Virginia is a test. It’s a test for me, it’s a test for Senator Obama," Clinton said, "Because for too long we have let places like West Virginia slip out of the Democratic column. It is a fact that no president, Democratic president, has ever won the White House since 1916 without winning West Virginia."

Clinton made reference to her interview with USA Today where she said "Sen. Obama’s support among working, hard-working Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

In her speech today, Clinton left out the part about white voters supporting her (remarks which have been generating buzz) to say "I’m winning Catholic voters and Hispanic voters and blue collar workers and seniors — the kind of people senator McCain will be fighting for in the general election. Some call you swing voters but I call you Americans."

Clinton then stressed the importance of swing states, stressing the importance of the electoral math for the general election. "Now the delegate math may be complicated but the electoral math is easy. We need 270 electoral votes to win in November, that’s what we have to have and Senator McCain is the frontrunner has served on the senate armed services committee he is a formidable opponent."

Clinton insisted on primary voting taking place in West Virginia, "Some in Washington wanted us to end our campaign – and then we won in New Hampshire. Then we had huge victories on Super Tuesday and then we won Ohio and Texas and Pennsylvania and I was never supposed to win Indiana. Well I want to be the president of all fifty states.”

Clinton continued "There are some folks who say we need to end this before we got to West Virginia – I said I don’t think so. I think we ought to keep this going to the people of West Virginia’s voices are heard."

Clinton then set the bar for her campaign in this state where she is ahead. "I know that according to the polls — and you know I take that with a grain of salt — I’m dong well here but I want to do really well."